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Alien Bounty Hunter
, in the appearance most commonly assumed by members of his race.]]Bounty hunters are shape-shifting aliens who have the ability to disguise themselves as anyone, although they commonly assume a specific appearance that they can maintain at the same time as each other. (TXF: "Colony", "Within") Regardless of how they are disguised, bounty hunters are immediately recognizable to clones. (TXF: "Colony") Due to the toxic nature of their blood (which, like that of the clones, is green), human exposure to it is fatal. Bounty hunters can only be killed by precisely piercing the base of their skulls. (TXF: "End Game") They all seem to use the same human form as their default form. Some of the faceless alien rebels use this form as well. They may be of the same extraterrestrial race as the faceless rebel aliens and/or the Grey aliens. (TXF: "The Unnatural") The bounty hunters are infected with the black oil virus, while each of the rebel aliens seal up their eyes, nose and mouth to prevent infection with the same virus. (citation) The bounty hunters act as police for the alien colonists. Their job is to keep Earth free from any aliens or clones that don't have permission by the colonists to be there like the Gregor Series and the Samantha Series (from Colony and End Game) and any aliens or clones that may expose colonization like the faceless aliens, Jeremiah Smith or Josh Exley (who posed a threat to the colonists by becoming a baseball player). Bounty Hunters and Clones Bounty hunters lived in harmony with clones for many years. The peaceful relationship between the two races could have led them to share the planet Earth. Unfortunately for the clones, however, the bounty hunters were employed by the Grey aliens. Acting on orders given to them by the Grey aliens, the bounty hunters were tasked with eliminating all proof of an alien presence already on Earth before colonization of that planet was due to begin, including ridding Earth of the clones. (TXF: "Colony", "The Truth") An early mission for one of the bounty hunters was the elimination of Josh Exley, an alien that had become disillusioned with his race and adopted human culture - particularly baseball - as his own. In 1947, a bounty hunter tracked Exley to Roswell, New Mexico and killed him. (TXF: "The Unnatural") Eliminating Gregor Series Clones When it was learned that the clones were attempting to establish a colony on Earth without permission from the colonists and had been conducting hybridization experiments that would erase their identical natures, a bounty hunter was dispatched to destroy the clones and terminate their colony because the experiments were not sanctioned and were considered a dilution of their race. (TXF: "End Game") In January 1995, a bounty hunter's UFO crashed in the icy arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea. The crew of the nearby research vessel Alta recovered the pilot of the craft from the freezing water, believing he was a Russian fighter pilot who had miraculously survived the extreme arctic temperatures. The extraterrestrial was airlifted to a military hospital in Alaska, where he was listed in stable condition. While authorities attempted to determine the pilot's exact identity, however, the bounty hunter escaped from the hospital. In Teaneck, New Jersey, the bounty hunter killed Doctor Harvey William Buchanon, a Gregor Series clone, on January 10, 1995. Heading north, the bounty hunter then killed another Gregor Series clone, Doctor Dale Gayhart, in New York City. Two days after the bounty hunter had escaped from hospital, another Gregor Series clone, Dr. Landon Prince, watched televised news reporting the discovery of the bounty hunter, while at an abortion clinic in Scranton, Pennsylvania where he worked. The clone became increasingly worried as he watched the news report and immediately recognized the bounty hunter's face. He desperately tried to flee from the clinic, but was stopped by the alien bounty hunter. The alien strangled him and demanded to know where a particular, unnamed man was located. When the clone replied that he did not know where the man was, the bounty hunter used a gimlet weapon to stab him in the back of the neck. His green, bubbling blood oozed out of his body. The bounty hunter caused an electrical fire that activated an alarm and he left the clinic as the burning building began to fill with smoke. :Oddly, Landon Prince's obituary states that he died on December 28th, 1994, just less than two weeks before the date that another obituary gives for the death of Harvey Buchanon. This is odd because Landon Prince is stated to be the latest of the three victims in dialog. The bounty hunter continued north to Syracuse, New York, where he encountered another Gregor Series clone, Doctor Aaron Baker. After the bounty hunter entered Dr. Baker's home at 737 26th Street, the clone attempted to reason with the bounty hunter, reminding him that, for years, the relationship between their two races had not been hostile. However, the bounty hunter refused to listen to Dr. Baker and pushed the clone against a wall, holding him by his throat. The alien threatened Dr. Baker that plans devised by the clones would not be successful, before slamming the doctor's face into the wall and subsequently killing the clone with his gimlet weapon. Moments after the clone's dead body fell to the floor, FBI Special Agent Barrett Weiss entered, aiming his gun at the bounty hunter. Although Agent Weiss ordered the assassin to drop his gimlet weapon, Weiss became startled when he saw Dr. Baker's body turn into a green liquid, bubbling and oozing. The bounty hunter was about to attack Agent Weiss when the agent shot him three times in the chest. Unmoving, the assassin looked down at his chest to see that he was leaking the same green liquid that Doctors Baker and Prince had. As the bounty hunter glared back up at the agent, Weiss began to be affected by the intoxicating reaction the green liquid had on humans. The bounty hunter killed Agent Weiss, dressed himself in the agent's clothes and stored Weiss in the luggage compartment of his own car. Weiss had been sent to Dr. Baker's home by Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who had already learned that someone had killed the other identical doctors. After assuming Agent Weiss' appearance, the bounty hunter met with Mulder and Scully. When Mulder asked if he had found Dr. Baker, the disguised assassin claimed negatively and lied that he had only discovered two weeks' worth of mail in the mailbox of the doctor's house. Nevertheless, Mulder insisted on inspecting the house with Scully. As they did so, the camouflaged bounty hunter walked to Agent Weiss' car and opened the car's trunk - where the real Weiss lay naked except for his underwear - before the assassin returned to his original human appearance and closed the trunk. The bounty hunter looked at Dr. Baker's home for a few moments before he walked away from the area. The bounty hunter then headed to Agent Scully's home in Washington, D.C. and had assumed the appearance of a CIA Agent before he met Mulder there. The alien introduced himself as Agent Ambrose Chapel and showed Mulder a CIA identification badge with that name on it. :The existence of the ID badge and the bounty hunter's use of the item, as well as evidence later seen in the episode, seems to indicate that the alien killed the real Ambrose Chapel before meeting Mulder. This possibility is not certain, however. In Scully's apartment, the bounty hunter, continuing to act as if he were a CIA Agent, told Mulder and Scully about the identical murder victims, explaining that they were Gregor Series clones and claiming that they had been murdered by a Russian spy killer because, though they had been created by Soviet scientists during the Cold War in a plan to sabotage various US medical facilities in the event of war, they were no longer required. The bounty hunter, disguised as Agent Chapel, claimed that someone in the US government was allowing the clones to be systemically eliminated and made it clear to Agents Mulder and Scully that he intended on finding the clones to expose the truth about their state-sanctioned murders. Consequently, Mulder and Scully effectively led the alien to his next victim, Dr. James Dickens, without knowning they were doing so. Upon meeting the clone with the FBI agents, the bounty hunter, even though still disguised as Agent Chapel, was immediately recognised by Dr. Dickens, who desperately fled from the assassin through a window in his apartment. In pursuit of the clone, the bounty hunter became separated from the FBI agents and killed Dr. Dickens after cornering him in an alley and reassuming his own most common appearance. By the time Agent Scully arrived, the bounty hunter had again disguised himself as Agent Ambrose Chapel. He claimed that Dr. Dickens had managed to escape before he walked away, leaving a pool of the clone's green "blood" to be found by Scully. (TXF: "Colony") The bounty hunter later went to a laboratory that Dr. Dickens and the last remaining Gregor Series clones had been using to conduct the hybridization experiments. (TXF: "Colony", "End Game") There, the alien executed another clone, leaving more green blood near the door to the facility. While the assassin, disguised as Agent Chapel, was destroying scientific equipment, Scully quietly entered the room but soon left when she saw the disguised bounty hunter, who noticed her leave. He continued to track her; using his most common appearance, the bounty hunter caught a bus that Scully took to the laboratory, the next day. On the bus, he overheard her make a phone call to Mulder and leave a message in which she revealed that she would be staying at the Vacation Village Motor Lodge in Germantown, Maryland. Later, the alien watched from a rooftop as Scully helped the remaining Gregor Series clones desert their facility for the safety of a maximum-security Federal Stockade in Tileston, Virginia. That night, the alien assumed the disguise of a Federal Marshal who had access to the stockade and, after infiltrating the prison, he secretly eliminated each of the remaining Gregor Series clones with his gimlet weapon. (TXF: "Colony") Pursuing a Samantha Series Clone After the complete eradication of the Gregor Series clones, the bounty hunter's main targets became Agent Mulder and a clone of his sister, Samantha Mulder, who was traveling with him. after being stung by bees.]] The alien journeyed to the Vacation Village Motorlodge and disguised himself as Mulder. Scully let him into her room as he fooled her into believing he was her FBI partner by claiming he had received her phone message. (TXF: "Colony") After she received a call from the real Mulder, however, Scully realized her mistake and attempted to arrest the alien. (TXF: "Colony", "End Game") Ignorant of who had called her, the bounty hunter initially continued his attempts to persuade Scully that he was Mulder, but he soon gave up hope of convincing her and instead assaulted her, knocking her against a wall. Correctly guessing that she had just been called by the real Mulder, the bounty hunter demanded to know the location of her FBI partner. When she refused to answer him and began reaching for her gun, the alien grabbed her by the throat and lifted her above his head, against the wall, with one hand. When she claimed ignorance as to his questions, he threw her up so that, upon landing, she broke through a glass table. The bounty hunter returned to his most common appearance before exiting the room with an unconscious Scully. (TXF: "End Game") Pursuing Jeremiah Smith by Mulder.]]When Jeremiah Smith appeared and healed people who were shot during a violent incident, including the shooter, he later appeared on the news. It was not long before the Cigarette Smoking Man captured Jeremiah Smith, but was forced to let him go in exchange for use of Smith's healing abilities, since Smith informed the Smoking Man he had fatal lung cancer. The bounty hunter was dispatched to kill Jeremiah Smith, who was knowledgeable about the conspiracy and could potentially expose them. But when the bounty hunter arrived at the jail cell, Jeremiah was gone, and had gone to find Agent Mulder to inform him of what he knew. The bounty hunter pursued Agent Mulder and Jeremiah to a bee husbandry facility in Canada, recovering easily from a failed attempt by Mulder to kill him. It is likely the reason the bounty hunter did not die from the wound was because Mulder didn't remove the gimlet weapon from the body. This stopped the wound from bleeding out, and prevented the bounty hunter from dissolving; or because the stilleto didn't go all the way through the bounty hunter's neck because it went through the back of his suit into his neck. .]] The facility was part of the "project" which Jeremiah was attempting to show to Mulder. After several attempts to evade him on their part, including toppling a large hive of bees onto him, the bounty hunter finally caught up to Mulder and Smith, the bounty hunters face and hands where covered with bee stings. He grabbed Mulder and told him that Jeremiah only told Mulder parts and not the whole. Mulder told the bounty hunter that he can't kill Smith, that he can't die. The bounty hunter's reply was that Smith must die. Mulder said take him instead of Jeremiah. The bounty hunter said you'd trade your life for his? Mulder said for his mother's. The bounty hunter said everything dies; he then most likely eliminated Jeremiah after incapacitating Mulder. Presumably he eliminated the child Samantha clone Mulder had attempted to liberate as well. Later the bounty hunter was called to the hospital by the Cigarette Smoking Man to heal Mulder's mother. When the bounty hunter asked "why this should be," CSM said if that Mulder was to lose his mother then he would have nothing left to lose, making him a threat. The bounty hunter then placed his hand on Mrs. Mulder's forehead she then began to open her eyes. (TXF: "Herrenvolk") The rebel threat The Bounty Hunter infiltrated Wiekamp Air Force Base and took the rebel prisoner under the guise of Quiet Willy in a truck. Unbeknownst to him, Mulder had jumped on the back of the truck and inside the cargo tent. The Bounty Hunter stopped the truck and came to kill the rebel, however, he and Mulder were attacked by other rebel aliens. (TXF: "The Red and the Black") Mulder's Abduction in 2000.]] The bounty hunters reappeared during the time when Mulder was abducted. A series of incidents resembling alien activity in Arizona led Scully and Skinner to search for Gibson Praise. John Doggett went as well, having been provided information on Praise from an unknown source. Doggett encountered what he thought was Mulder, but was actually a bounty hunter attempting to capture Praise. The bounty hunter walked backwards over a cliff and disappeared. However, he returned to where the FBI task force was based and caused havoc while still seeking Praise. He took on the guise of Scully and nearly killed Agent Landau. Ultimately, the bounty hunter took on the appearance of Thea Sprecher and successfully captured Praise. In the hospital where Praise was kept, the bounty hunter knocked out Skinner and later tried to kill Scully. However, Scully shot him through the back of the neck - its only vulnerable spot - and watched as it dissolved into a green puddle. ("Without") Abilities and characteristics The bounty hunters have exhibited a number of distinctive traits in their many appearances, many of which make them particularly dangerous. Shapeshifting. This is the most notable ability possessed by the bounty hunters. They are, at will, able to assume the shape of an person they wish. The transformation process takes only a few seconds and does not appear to put them under any visible strain. In addition to altering things such as facial features and hair color, the shifting can also include a significant alteration of mass. The bounty hunter involved in Mulder's abduction, and the hunt for Gibson Praise, assumed the form of not only Dana Scully, but also a young girl. While they can imitate the voice of the person whose appearance they assume, they are not able to imitate personality traits, and remain just as unemotional and cold as they are in their default form. Strength. The bounty hunters seem to have above average strength, and are capable of lifting and throwing adult humans with only minimal effort, as well as being able to cause serious injury and damage with only their bare hands. Invulnerability. With the exception of their one weakness (a piercing at the base of the neck) the bounty hunters appear to be, for all practical purposes, invincible. Gunshots seem to have no effect whatsoever. Falls from extreme heights are brushed off within a matter of moments. The bounty hunter who pursued Jeremiah Smith was temporarily infected with smallpox due to stings from the modified honeybees, but aside from the presence of boils, it did not seem to cause any ill effects on him whatsoever. His other abilities seemed to be fully intact during the infection. Toxic Blood. The green blood of the alien bounty hunters is extremely dangerous to humans. Josh Exley claimed that the alien blood is "like acid", and it has shown the ability to eat though various solid objects. When the skin is pierced, a hissing sound can be heard, suggesting that it is not only the blood, but some manner of airborne compound that exits the body that is also dangerous. When a bounty hunter is killed in the proper manner, such as a gunshot to the neck or being stabbed in the same area with a gimlet weapon, the blood does not seem to cause any ill effects. Alex Krycek and Jeffrey Spender were shown sitting next to the dissolving body of an alien rebel with no apparent ill effects. When Scully shot the bounty hunter pursuing Gibson praise, there seemed to be no indication that the same airborne irritant affected her or Gibson. Healing. The alien bounty hunter heals Teena Mulder after her stroke, at the request of the Cigarette Smoking Man. This suggests that Jeremiah Smith is only one of many members that possess this ability. Appearances Assumed by Bounty Hunters * Josh Exley * FBI Special Agent Barrett Weiss * CIA Agent Ambrose Chapel * Federal Marshal * FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder * FBI Special Agent Dana Scully * Lieutenant Terry Wilmer * Jeremiah Smith * Bearded man * Detective Miles * Gene Crane * Thea Sprecher * Walter Skinner Background Information The initial draft of the script for "End Game" includes two scenes featuring the alien bounty hunter that unfortunately had to be removed from the final script because there was insufficient time in which to film them. The first scene takes place very early in the story, after Mulder bursts into Scully's motel room to find that she has been abducted by the bounty hunter. In the deleted scene, he then exits the room and sees the federal marshal - who the bounty hunter had disguised himself as, in "Colony". Mulder is extremely paranoid that the federal marshal is still the alien in disguise and draws his gun on the marshal. After a tense showdown between the two characters, it is revealed that the federal marshal is who he appears to be and is not the bounty hunter. The second cut scene takes place at the start of the script's second act, the morning after the hostage trade in which Mulder traded a woman who he believed was his sister for Scully. Driving on the way to meet his father at the bridge where the trade took place, Mulder sees his sister, wet and cold at the side of the road. He stops to let her enter his car and, as he continues driving, he suddenly realizes that the passenger is not his sister but the alien bounty hunter. He watches as his sister morphs into the alien, who he struggles with over the wheel of the car. Eventually, the two men jump out of the car moments before it crashes. With the bounty hunter in pursuit, Mulder rushes to the abortion clinic where other clones of his sister are. According to Frank Spotnitz, the writer of "End Game", the deleted material was "great stuff, but the story didn't really need either of those scenes. I didn't realize it when I was writing that you can't do a show of that size in eight days." In a hidden track on ''The X-Files'': The Album, writer and series creator Chris Carter talks about the alien colonists, their black oil and bounty hunters, as well as the Syndicate, the threat to the Syndicate that Agents Mulder and Scully posed and the clones developed by the Syndicate. Of the bounty hunters, Carter says that the Syndicate had, "in a crisis, used a tool of the colonists themselves - alien bounty hunters who policed the cloning operations and enforced rule on the count-down to colonization - a double-edged sword whose cold-blooded tactics had helped to stem a leak or threat, but who also kept watch on the Syndicate - a threat in itself as the Syndicate had something to hide that not even the colonists knew of: a vaccine against the black oil." This uneasy relationship with the Syndicate explains why, in "Talitha Cumi", C.G.B. Spender and X were so anxious to acquire the stiletto weapon that was hidden in the Mulders' summer home. Although the above statement proves that, by the release of The X-Files: The Album in June 1998, Chris Carter had developed the concept of the bounty hunters as a race rather than as only a singular character, it would not be until "Without", first broadcast more than two years later on 12 November 2000, that an episode of The X-Files first established this fact. At the end of that episode, six identical bounty hunters are seen in the same shot. "Without" was also the first episode to show any of the bounty hunters in an alien environment and they wore specifically designed clothes rather than human attire. In the script used to film the episode, the bounty hunters in the scene are described as "a group of half a dozen beings who - as camera pans - are revealed to be half a dozen alien bounty hunters". However, the episode would also prove to be their final appearance, as their role was assumed by the Super Soldiers. The bounty hunters were usually played by Brian Thompson but, due to the aliens' shape-shifting ability, many other actors also temporarily starred as a bounty hunter. In "Colony", the first known appearance of a bounty hunter, Andrew Johnston, Tom Butler, Tim Henry, and series regular David Duchovny all appeared as disguised versions of the alien assassin. Duchovny appears as the same camouflaged bounty hunter in a scene near the start of "End Game", an episode in which the alien character was also played by Colin Cunningham. In a featurette of the threads of abduction from the mythology sets, Brian Thompson describes the bounty hunter as being the alien version of Duchovny. Appearances Category:Aliens Category:Deceased people Category:TXF characters